Project R-5427

The most beautiful villages of Haspengouw (Research)

The project's overall aim is to make the inhabitants of Haspengouw aware of the spatial changes taking place in their region and the possible role they (could) play in these processes. The specific project objective, however, is different, namely initiating a long-term commitment in monitoring the regional identity of Hapengouw as antidote against the ruling changes, both in residents and officials. To achieve this, the project wants to introduce the label 'Most beautiful villages of Haspengouw' that on one hand shows how strong the regional identity of a village is, and on the other shows how big the engagement of both residents and officials is in guarding this identity. To help villages to obtain this label, two instruments will be developed in this project: 1) a 'living network' built around networks/associations that already commit to Haspengouw and organize activities around the individuality of their region and 2) the quality plan as an instrument that can visualize how to deal with the regional identity of specific villages from Haspengouw. The objective of this project is to develop this label and these instruments and to test the feasibility of an actual implementation by implementing this in one particular village.

01 October 2013 - 30 June 2014